Smat farms led from Amazon

codenfx · Mar 12, 2022

Here’s my par reading using the apogee MQ-510. This is a softie/LPS tank with dimensions of 36x20x20 inches running both blues at 75%, UV at 60% and both whites at 1% mounted at the max height with the included mount. Sometimes I turn off the whites to get the more blue look making corals color pop. All corals are happy. To my surprise they included the remote control, I’ve emailed smatfarm about it and they said because so many ppl complain no remote they give bad rating, they decide to include it again as a “gift.” IMO the remote control is useless, way easier to use the built in control. All in all I love this light.

EricR · Mar 12, 2022

Lovin' the visual (picture) representation of your PAR tests -- nice job!

JachPot · Mar 12, 2022

codenfx said:
Here’s my par reading using the apogee MQ-510. This is a softie/LPS tank with dimensions of 36x20x20 inches running both blues at 75%, UV at 60% and both whites at 1% mounted at the max height with the included mount. Sometimes I turn off the whites to get the more blue look making corals color pop. All corals are happy. To my surprise they included the remote control, I’ve emailed smatfarm about it and they said because so many ppl complain no remote they give bad rating, they decide to include it again as a “gift.” IMO the remote control is useless, way easier to use the built in control. All in all I love this light.

I was trying to compare this to a hydra 32 PAR setup for comparison, I haven't delved super far into PAR, how do you feel about these numbers?

bReefedBaker · Mar 12, 2022

LeftyReefer said:
The prices on these lights have come back down again, back to the $130 range again.

After reading your review and many on Amazon I took the leap about a week ago and purchased it with the instant 15% off at checkout. I love the light but I do have a few pet peeves, but won’t complain for under $200.

JachPot · Mar 12, 2022

bReefedBaker said:
After reading your review and many on Amazon I took the leap about a week ago and purchased it with the instant 15% off at checkout. I love the light but I do have a few pet peeves, but won’t complain for under $200.

You know what, screw it, I ordered one. Very excited to try it out. This is the trial run for going over whatever 180/240 I get in the future

JachPot · Mar 12, 2022

So this popped up a few days ago on youtube!

Edit: They also added some master/slave controller, settings, etc videos as well

codenfx · Mar 12, 2022

JachPot said:
I was trying to compare this to a hydra 32 PAR setup for comparison, I haven't delved super far into PAR, how do you feel about these numbers?

The numbers are good for my tank, it’s what I was shooting for. I don’t plan on sps but it definitely has enough power for higher pars.

Falc! · Mar 12, 2022

Ill try to put a par numbers like that for my tank. I rented a par meter locally a couple weeks ago and at settings i use on the 4 units i have were quite a lot higher than those and i run both whites at 20%.......water level was 500 par. Let me go back into my files

LeftyReefer · Mar 13, 2022

When I first put in the Smat Farm lights, I started them out at 5/50/50/50/5/5.
I've been slowly ramping them up since then. currently running mine at 10/70/70/70/10/15 now.

20/100/100/100/20/60 will get you closest to AB+ spectrum with this light.

I ended up adding a 470nm aliexpress bar to my setup to fatten up the spectrum a bit, per @telegraham's suggestion.

JachPot · Mar 15, 2022

Well, I'm the proud new owner of a Smat farms light.

I'm currently fighting my 3d printer to print the corners for my new mesh lid I'm building. After that, I'll give the light a run! But holy cow is this thing sleek and bright. I was playing with the settings and it is incredibly bright.

Going to be a real pain in the butt figuring out the settings for my evo 13.5 lol

Falc! · Mar 15, 2022

JachPot said:
Well, I'm the proud new owner of a Smat farms light.

I'm currently fighting my 3d printer to print the corners for my new mesh lid I'm building. After that, I'll give the light a run! But holy cow is this thing sleek and bright. I was playing with the settings and it is incredibly bright.

Going to be a real pain in the butt figuring out the settings for my evo 13.5 lol

Congratz and yes they are very bright

LeftyReefer · Mar 16, 2022

I've also been pleasantly surprised at how quiet these Smat Farm lights are too.

I had Viparspectras before, which I didn't necessarily consider loud by any means, but these Smat Farms are virtually silent. I now consider my Viparspectras loud by comparison. I do not hear any fan noise from the Smat Farm lights.

JachPot · Mar 17, 2022

Up and running! I'm on 30% for the blues, 7% on the whites, 12% on the green.

I'm using that as the start of my acclimation period. Anyone have any suggestions? Lights are 8" above the evo 13.5

Falc! · Mar 17, 2022

JachPot said:
Up and running! I'm on 30% for the blues, 7% on the whites, 12% on the green.

I'm using that as the start of my acclimation period. Anyone have any suggestions? Lights are 8" above the evo 13.5

Thats a good start. Just watch how ur corals react to it and modify weekly if needed

Jackal799 · Mar 17, 2022

workhz said:
Smat? Were they developed in Boston?

This made my day. Especially after listening to reefbums podcast with the president of Boston Reefers lol

JachPot · Mar 17, 2022

Falcon30 said:
Thats a good start. Just watch how ur corals react to it and modify weekly if needed

What do you think my final values might end up near?

piranhaman00 · Mar 17, 2022

JachPot said:
What do you think my final values might end up near?

I would keep all channels equal, end at 50%

Falc! · Mar 17, 2022

JachPot said:
What do you think my final values might end up near?

On that tank i would guess whites maxed at 10 and thats pushing it. Big blue 20-30ish and the other blue and uv at 50ish and green no more than 15

JachPot · Mar 17, 2022

Falcon30 said:
On that tank i would guess whites maxed at 10 and thats pushing it. Big blue 20-30ish and the other blue and uv at 50ish and green no more than 15

So 10/25/50/50/10/10 more or less? I'll work up to that.

I might go 8/25/50/50/8/10 and see how that looks as well.

JachPot · Mar 18, 2022

Does the fan run 24/7 for anyone else? If the light is on, the fan is on. I have it over a rimless tank in my office and I've noticed that. It's not super loud or anything, but it's like 65 degrees in my office and the fan is full blast

Fan is at 25c = 77f temp wise